Vice President and Secretary

Robert K. Durkee

Robert K. Durkee, vice president and secretary, Princeton University

Robert K. Durkee became Vice President and Secretary of the University on January 1, 2004. In this capacity he serves as senior adviser to the president, provides administrative support for the Board of Trustees and oversees the official convocations of the University such as Commencement. He also continues to serve as Vice President for Public Affairs, a position he has held since 1978. Mr. Durkee joined the administration in the spring of 1972 as assistant to the president and, after a year on leave to serve as executive assistant to the president of the Washington, D.C.-based Association of American Universities, was appointed Vice President for Public Affairs in 1978. In this capacity he oversees the offices of the Alumni Association, Communications, Community and Regional Affairs, Government Affairs and Public Affairs.

In addition to his work at Princeton, Mr. Durkee’s board memberships have included the Washington, D.C.-based Fair Labor Association (which he has served as acting chair), the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities, the Council for Advancement and Support of Education, the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of New Jersey, the Consortium on Financing Higher Education, McCarter Theatre and the Princeton University Store. He also has chaired a national advisory committee for a major outreach initiative of the American Council on Education. He was the founding chair of Princeton University’s Martin Luther King Day committee, and of the Public Affairs Committee of the Association of American Universities.

Mr. Durkee received his A.B. degree magna cum laude from Princeton in 1969, where he majored in public and international affairs and was editor-in-chief of the daily student newspaper. He taught fifth and sixth grades in the Trenton (N.J.) public schools from 1969 through 1972 and earned a master of arts in teaching degree from Montclair State University in 1971.